Atrocitus

Atrocitus
File:Atrocitus.png Atrocitus. Promotional cover art for 'Final Crisis: Rage of the Red Lanterns #1, by Shane Davis.
Publication information
Publisher	DC Comics
First appearance	First appearance: Green Lantern (vol. 4) #25 (December 2007) Chronological first appearance: Green Lantern (vol. 4) #29 (May 2008)
Created by	Geoff Johns Ethan Van Sciver
In-story information
Place of origin	Ysmault
Team affiliations	Red Lantern Corps The Five Inversions The Empire of Tears
Abilities	Red Power Ring

Atrocitus is a fictional character, an alien supervillain in the DC Comics Universe. Created by Geoff Johns and Ethan Van Sciver, Atrocitus is the former arch-nemesis of former Green Lantern Sinestro. He first appears in Green Lantern (vol. 4) #25 in a two-page "War of Light" spread, and made his chronological first appearance in Green Lantern (vol. 4) #29 as a prisoner of Lantern Hal Jordan's predecessor, Abin Sur.

Fictional character biography

Green Lantern: Secret Origin

Long ago, when the rogue Manhunters rampaged through Space Sector 666, Atrocitus was one of only five beings in the entire sector to escape death. He and the other four survivors formed a terrorist cabal known as the Five Inversions, bent on the destruction of the Guardians of the Universe and all who served them, and with Atrocitus serving as their leader. The Five Inversions performed a ritual which allowed them to peer into the future and discover the prophecy of the Blackest Night, which decreed that all life in the universe would end.

After Abin Sur began making periodic visits to the planet Ysmault, where the Five Inversions were imprisoned after the Guardians destroyed their Empire of Tears, he began to ask questions regarding the Blackest Night. Sur even went so far as to free Atrocitus from his imprisonment so he could lead the Green Lantern to Earth, the birthplace of "the black" that would end the universe. Caged in Sur's starship, Atrocitus instilled fear in Sur, allowing the yellow impurity to seep into his willpower constructs and weaken them enough to allow him to escape. After slashing the Green Lantern in the chest, mortally wounding him, Atrocitus jumped from a point high in Earth's atmosphere to escape Sur's failing ship.

Atrocitus continued his violent rampage on the planet Earth. After killing an unspecified number of Air Force troopers, Atrocitus recited what would later become the oath of the Red Lantern Corps and performed a ritual which gives him the name of the herald of the Blackest Night: William Hand. Atrocitus created a device using gun parts which acted as a cosmic divining rod, and used it to lead him to Hand (the device eventually became Hand's criminal weapon). Once he tracked down the human who, it is said, will play a prominent role in the coming of the Blackest Night, he attacked, and planned to take Hand's innards back to Ysmault. Before his plan proceeded, however, Sinestro and rookie Green Lantern Hal Jordan intercepted him, spiriting William Hand to safety. Atrocitus used his newly-constructed device to sap the power from their rings, leaving them with only their wits to defend them before the master of the Five Inversions. Sinestro was able to restore their rings' powers through his power battery, but Atrocitus still had the upper hand. Just as he was about to crush Sinestro with a power shovel, Hal used his ring to blow up the yellow vehicle. This act surprised Atrocitus greatly, as he believed Green Lantern rings did not work on yellow. Defeated, Atrocitus was contained by Sinestro, and taken to Oa. He was later returned to Ysmault by Sinestro, where he prophecised that Sinestro's home planet Korugar would soon erupt into chaos and disorder. Through this act, it was implied that it was Atrocitus who planted the seeds of Sinestro's later fall from grace.

Rage of the Red Lanterns

Main article: Green Lantern: The Blackest Night

Atrocitus is shown in the aftermath of the Sinestro Corps War to be the first to forge a Red Lantern power battery, utilizing the power of rage. He said that his first new victim would be the one who called himself "the greatest Green Lantern:" Sinestro, who had long since abandoned the Green Lantern Corps to forge a Corps in his own namesake. He also murdered Qull of the Five Inversions, a fellow member of the Empire of Tears and the one responsible for telling Abin Sur the prophecy of the Blackest Night (which cause the Guardians of the Universe to continue the Empire of Tears' incarceration on Ysmault, rather than transfer them to Oa's sciencells, closer to the enemies of the Five Inversion). In this way, his Red Lantern power battery was christened with blood.

Atrocitus murders the other members of the Five Inversions, using their blood to create red power rings, power batteries, and a Red Central Power Battery on Ysmault. Atrocitus soon dons his new red power ring, created from the blood of the other members of the Five Inversions, becoming the first Red Lantern. He recruits many other individuals from across the universe who have great anger and hate, including former Green Lantern Laira. Many of them have been wronged by the Sinestro Corps, and Atrocitus promises them that the Red Lantern Corps will eradicate Sinestro himself. He leads his new corps in an assault against Sinestro while he is being transferred by some members of the Green Lantern Corps to his home planet of Korugar for execution.

The Red Lanterns interrupt a deadly fight between Sinestro's forces and the Green Lanterns and began killing both the Sinestro Corps members and the Green Lanterns without discrimination. Atrocitus personally slayed the long-standing Green Lantern Remnant Nod. Eventually Sinestro is captured and taken to Ysmault for execution, and Hal Jordan, who faced Atrocitus previously, is left for dead in space. After bringing Sinestro to Ysmault, Atrocitus nails the former Green Lantern to a cross to await his execution at his own hands. However, unlike the Guardians, who preferred a quick execution, Atrocitus wishes to make Sinestro suffer first by taking revenge on everything he has ever cared about. His targets include Korugar, and Sinestro's previously unknown and hidden daughter, whose identity Atrocitus has learned through his blood prophecies..

When Hal Jordan and the Blue Lanterns arrive to recover Sinestro, Atrocitus reveals another prophecy to Hal: that the Guardians will one day take his greatest love, its also revealed that the Blue Lanterns' hope inducing rings have no effect against Atrocitus, who claims to know their weakness. In the ensuing battle Jordan is captured and Atrocitus gives Laira permission to kill him, but the former Green Lantern resists and is able to plead for help. After rescuing Sinestro, the Blue Lanterns begin to leave, but Jordan wants to go back for Laira. It is then learned that removing a Red Lantern ring will kill its owner. Sinestro then kills Laira to save Jordan. In a burst of outrage, Jordan prepares to carry out Sinestro's death sentence himself, against the wishes of the Blue Lanterns. The rage that Jordan feels draws Laira's red ring to him, causing him to turn renegade once again and converting Jordan into the newest member of the Red Lantern Corps.

Powers and abilities

Atrocitus wields a Red Lantern power ring similar to that of a Green Lantern's, save that it is powered by rage rather than willpower. The full extent of a red power ring's powers has not been revealed, but it is stated in Final Crisis: Rage of the Red Lanterns that the red ring acts as their heart and pumps their rage tainted blood out of their body through their mouth. It is also shown (Green Lantern Vol. 4 #36) that the ring's red energy corrupts the auras of other power rings and burns them away, possibly corrupting the ring beyond the ability for a Lantern to use. Unlike the other members of the Red Lantern Corps, whose rings reduce them to being mindless raging beasts, Atrocitus is in full control of his mental faculties while wearing his ring.

Atrocitus possesses superhuman strength and durability; strong enough to toss a construction digger and durable enough to withstand bullets.

Atrocitus's association with the Empire of Tears granted him a great deal of shamanistic magic, which he used to forge the Red Lantern rings and divine the location of Wiliam Hand.

External links

• Atrocitus at the DC Database Project